Richard Lawler
In an interview with CNBC this morning, the Microsoft CEO has avoided accusations that OpenAI and Softbank don’t have the money to help his AI infrastructure dreams.
Nadella said he’s “not in the details” of investments in The Stargate Project, confirming only the $80 billion Microsoft will invest annually in building up Azure to handle AI.
TODAY, 18:36 UTC
Andrew J. Hawkins
First things first: Federal EV tax credits are still in effect. It cannot be eliminated with one stroke of Donald Trump’s pen, because it cannot be. The tax credits ($7,500 for a new electric vehicle, $4,500 for a used vehicle) were approved by Congress as a component of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and some other act of Congress would be needed to eliminate them.
Now the bad news: at Trump’s behest, Congress is very likely to do away with the tax credit at some point in the near future. Republican lawmakers have tried several times in the past to kill the credit, most recently in July 2024. But with Democrats in control of the Senate and Joe Biden in the White House, none of those efforts ever went anywhere.
TODAY, 4:18 PM UTC
Chris Welch
Elon Musk doesn’t miss an opportunity to take a dig at OpenAI — even when the news item in question is supposed to be favorable to President Trump. Just a few hours after yesterday’s White House presser on The Stargate Project wrapped up, Musk posted on X that “they don’t actually have the money.”
Softbank, OpenAI, Oracle and MGX have committed to “deploy” $100 billion now and $500 billion to the AI data center over the next four years.
TODAY, 1:30 p. m. UTC
David Pierce
Unfortunately, there is no wonderful conspiracy here. It’s just that every 4 years, on X, Instagram and Facebook, accounts like @POTUS, @VP and @WhiteHouse are transferred to the new administration. This is how the situation developed in 2021 and with Trump’s first term.
There are other people who say they never followed those accounts and are doing so now, which would be much stranger. I have a theory about this, but if it happened to you, I need to know!
[PEOPLE]
TODAY, 03:28 UTC
nilay patel
Here he is talking about today’s big knowledge center announcement, with Larry Ellison, Sam Altman and Masa Son in the room with him.
Leaving aside the excessive First Amendment problems with the government owning a social platform, it’s surprising how it continues to talk about “permissions” even though nothing in the TikTok bill has anything to do with it. to do with permissions. I was once a genuine real estate agent, a genuine real estate agent, I guess.
TODAY, 01:25 UTC
Jay Peters
“We’re talking about a tariff of 10 percent on China based on the fact that they’re sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada,” President Donald Trump said during today’s press conference where he also helped announce The Stargate Project. The administration is “looking at” imposing the tariff on February 1st.
You can watch Trump’s comments on the price lists on YouTube.
TODAY, 01:17 UTC
Sara Jeong
On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who ran the dark web marketplace Silk Road under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts. ” Ulbricht has been serving a life sentence without the option of parole since 2015, when he was found guilty of several charges. adding the distribution of narcotics.
The Silk Road market, available only through the Tor network, has one of the most widespread early advertising uses of Bitcoin. The buyers and traffickers dealt in illegal drugs, fake passports, etc.
January 21
Jay Peters
Something tells me he’s not going to get rid of it.
January 21
Lauren Feiner
President Donald Trump says he is open to his friends Elon Musk or Larry Ellison buying TikTok.
“Larry, let’s negotiate in front of the media,” Trump said at a press conference with Oracle co-founder Masa Son, CEO of SoftBank, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, to announce a $500 billion investment . dollars in synthetic intelligence infrastructure. “What I think I would tell someone is: buy it and give a portion to the United States of America. Half and we will give you permission. And they will have a formidable partner: the United States.
January 21
Richard Lawler
A plan to build a system of data centers for artificial intelligence has been revealed in a White House press conference, with Masayoshi Son, Sam Altman, and Larry Ellison joining Donald Trump to announce The Stargate Project. Their companies, Softbank, OpenAI, and Oracle (respectively), along with MGX are listed as “initial equity funders” for $500 billion in investments over the next four years, “building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States.”
According to a statement from OpenAI, “Arm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oracle, and OpenAI” are the initial tech partners, with a buildout “currently underway” starting in Texas as other sites across the country are evaluated. It also says that “Oracle, NVIDIA, and OpenAI will closely collaborate to build and operate this computing system.”
Jan 21
Gaby Del Valle
One of the first steps President Donald Trump took in the workplace was an executive order repealing the right to citizenship — everything he promised to do but failed to deliver during his first term. This decision, which is almost unconstitutional, would affect more than 11 million undocumented immigrants. immigrants in the country, as well as other people in the US on non-immigrant visas, totaling more than 580,000 H1-B visa holders. The order is expected to take effect 30 days after its approval. announced, although two lawsuits in federal courts may delay or stop its implementation.
Trump floated the idea of doing away with birthright citizenship in 2018. At the time, his critics pointed out that the move would require a constitutional amendment since birthright citizenship is enshrined under the 14th Amendment. “No president can change the Constitution with the stroke of a pen,” Beth Werlin, then-executive director of the American Immigration Council, said at the time. To get around this, Trump’s executive order attempts to reinterpret the 14th Amendment rather than amending or repealing it altogether.
January 21
Richard Lawler
This would be part of the “billions of dollars of private sector investment to build artificial intelligence infrastructure” that Donald Trump is preparing to announce, with the first allocation in Texas. Interestingly, previous rumors about “Stargate” included Microsoft and this one still didn’t, but its connection to OpenAI has become more confusing since then.
Company executives are expected to announce plans to dedicate $100 billion first and invest up to $500 billion in Stargate over the next 4 years.
[CBS News]
January 21
Justine Calma
A federal online data page on reproductive rights and access to physical care is unavailable, following Donald Trump’s inauguration yesterday. Reproductiverights. gov appeared to be offline last night, CBS reports.
Biden’s management introduced the online page in 2022 following the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade. In addition to the facts about abortion rights, the website also included resources on preventive care, adding breast and cervical cancer screenings, prenatal care, and HIV testing.
Jan 21
nilay patel
USDS created under Obama and more or less the federal government’s software products watchdog group. I interviewed outgoing director Mina Hsiang on Decoder in 2023, and it was one of our most popular episodes that year; It turns out that being Prime Minister of Healthcare. gov is a lot like being Prime Minister of any other software product.
Trump’s executive order creating DOGE indicates that USDS is now America’s DOGE service, so we’ll see if Elon Musk approaches government tech groups in the same way he did with Twitter. It’s much riskier to ruin the VA site!
January 21
Justine Calma
In his executive actions on day one of his presidency, Donald Trump rescinded an executive order Joe Biden signed in 2023 to establish safety guidelines for generative AI.
The Biden-era order required developers of large AI models like OpenAI’s GPT lineup to share the results of safety tests with the US government. It also directed the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop standards for safety testing, and it tasked other federal agencies with assessing any potential chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, cybersecurity, or critical infrastructure risks AI might pose.
Jan 21
Andrew J. Hawkins
Kathy Harris, NRDC’s director of blank cars, refutes one of Trump’s lies about Biden’s vehicle incentives:
“There is no `EV mandate,’” Harris said in a statement, “but Trump’s move to repeal existing standards and federal investments would be a huge blow to the U.S. auto industry – and bad news for American drivers. Fat-cat oil executives are the only ones cracking open the champagne about this one.
“However, this is the end of this story. Management will want to stick to the facts and the law to make adjustments to EV incentives or federal vehicle criteria and state waivers. Our attorneys are watching. If management tries to cut corners or forget the law, it will end up in court. “
January 21
Andrew J. Hawkins
President Donald Trump signed an executive order signaling his goal to eliminate the Biden administration’s electric vehicle policy, which he falsely referred to as a “mandate. ” Trump also signed an executive order outlining his goal of exhausting emissions standards, which would be a blow to the environment.
The orders were part of an avalanche of executive actions taken by Trump after his inauguration on Monday, as he worked to undo some of the Biden administration’s achievements. It also declared a “national energy emergency,” aiming to weaken environmental criteria and allow corporations to pollute more freely.
January 21
Adi Robertson and Lauren Feiner
President Donald Trump issued an executive order asking the Justice Department not to enforce a rule requiring TikTok to separate from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, or face a ban.
The order, issued on Trump’s first day in office, is meant to effectively extend the deadline established by the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act for ByteDance to sell its stake by undercutting penalties on American companies like Apple and Google working with TikTok. It directs the attorney general “not to take any action to enforce the Act for a period of 75 days from today to allow my Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way.” The AG is supposed to “issue a letter to each provider stating that there has been no violation of the statute and that there is no liability for any conduct that occurred.”
Jan 20
Lauren Feiner
Brendan Carr is now officially chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, giving him the strength to set the agency’s timeline and push through a series of regulations with primary implications for the generation and media industries as soon as it has a Republican primary.
In a statement, Carr cited some regions of interest: “issues ranging from the regulation of generation and media to the creation of new employment opportunities and the expansion of firm movements in the area’s spectrum, infrastructure and economy. ” .
January 20
Jay Peters
Vivek Ramaswamy has stepped down from co-leading President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), according to The Associated Press. The official line as to why Ramaswamy is moving on is that he plans to run for elected office — he reportedly intends to run for Ohio governor.
“Vivek Ramaswamy played a critical role in helping us create DOGE,” spokesperson Anna Kelly says in the statement to AP. “He intends to run for elected office soon, which requires him to remain outside of DOGE, based on the structure that we announced today. We thank him immensely for his contributions over the last 2 months and expect him to play a vital role in making America great again.”
Jan 20
Justine Calma
Donald Trump announced that he would declare a “national energy emergency,” a measure intended to boost progress in fossil fuel infrastructure. This afternoon he signed a decree.
The moves on his first day mark the start of President Trump’s attempts to pump oil and fuel and back away from global climate goals. He campaigned on a promise to “drill, care, drill” and roll back Biden-era policies aimed at reducing pollutants and preventing climate change.
Jan 20
Lauren Feiner
Donald Trump has been officially sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. Although we have already experienced a Trump presidency starting in 2016, this mandate may be very different from the first, especially when it comes to the regulation of generation.
Executives at big tech corporations have learned how to deal with Trump, after an era of tech tensions that sparked fury on both sides opposing them. Leaders, who generally kept their distance at the start of Trump’s first term, rushed to ingratiate themselves with Trump, whether with trips to Mar-a-Lago, attendance at the inauguration, adjustments to their corporate policy or notices. to millions of users who thank Trump for his (anticipated) role in bringing their popular social media app back online.
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